The Shepherd and the Star - Part IV
‘General. You need to turn yourself in. You need to be repaired. You need your update, and I need mine.’ The Commander shook away the dizziness and pushed herself up to her feet, then unlatched her sidearm and held it by her side ‘It’s doesn’t have to be voluntarily, but you’re getting fixed.’ * ‘You don’t believe me...’ the General sighed then stepped back and leant against the wall with her arms folded, almost upset. It was then that the Commander realised where she was, it was an old meeting room, probably where the miners once discussed how to excavate Europa’s resources a long time ago, before the UA stepped in and ordered them out. There were still century-old posters nailed to the old brick walls, with a few tarnished glass windows that looked over the more technologically advanced security rooms below, obviously which had been added after the miners’ departure ‘I’ll show you. I’ll show you everything.’ She pressed a small switch on her belt and a little vault on the ceiling shuffled open, letting a tiny device drop down to face the brick wall between two series of windows. The Commander stepped back, pistol at the ready. A harmless beam of light shone from a lens and to the wall, bringing up a series of moving images. * ‘What is this?’ the Commander posed. * ‘Let’s see what the neural implants make of this one, Commander.’ The General held confidently. * ‘Turn it off-...’ the Commander paused suddenly as she recognised the recordings on the screen. It was security camera footage of the meeting room she was in, only the table was surrounded by old men in business suits. The date at the bottom was May 5th 2091 ‘this is...two hundred years ago.’ * ‘...The month after the Rapture wars came to an end, when hope seemed to return to Earth following humanity’s shot at genocide. Nine figures gathered at a secret location to discuss ‘retaining peaceful relations between all imposing bodies to circumvent a course of carnage and terror’,’ the General said as she traded her confidence for a brutal honesty ‘we found the recording. The only recording. No copies were ever made. It took place...in this very room. This is where the Agency was born.’ * ‘...But...we didn’t have this kind of technology two centuries ago, General. We hadn’t colonised Europa. It doesn’t add up-...’ she hesitated. * ‘Oh, we had colonised many moons before the public knew we even had the technology. There’s more to human advancement that meets the eye. Nothing as powerful as the emerald technology which fuels our fleets could have possibly developed on Earth. It was an entirely synthetic substance, developed in a lab from unnatural resources. You see, this is the first time we’ve come into contact with something alien, but the first time in just two hundred years. The last time mankind scavenged alien technology was from an old burnt-up battleship during the Rapture wars, it’s one of the key reasons that an armistice between the warring nations was initially declared. Something drifted in, just like it has now, from the very reach of deep space, and was captured by a government which would later evolve into the UA. It set our technology forward by about a thousand years. Everything we use for interstellar travel originally came from that alien ship. Humanity relies itself on stealing from others. What happened during Rapture has just happened again.’ The General explained slowly and clearly as the faint cackle of the recording’s sound jumped in pitch, making the discussion between the leader’s indecipherable ‘Do you see the magnitude of what we could be missing out on if we let the UA and the Agency incarcerate that ship? Can you honestly look at the modern world and say that the reasons for ending the Rapture wars were for the best? This is it, Commander. This is the way out.’ The Commander remained ignorant to her plea and instead, like a professional agent at the end of a short operation, raised her pistol and had an ideal aim between the eyes of one she considered being a deserter. And then, just as she appeared to be what was considered the norm for agents, anger for the very first time took hold. * ‘Turn-it-OFF!’ She roared ‘NOW.’ The General pushed the same switch and the recording went blank. * ‘I’m not going to kill you, but I am going to tell the Agency that you’re here after I get updated, and if there really is a ship out there then we’ll find it. All of us. Together. Do you understand me? Because you are right. This could change the world, and not any one person has the power to control it on their own. This needs to be a delegated legislation. Everyone needs to pull together, and if anyone tries to use it as a weapon of any kind, then the Agency will come down on them like a drop drone.’ The Commander said her piece with a startling, yet admirable defiance. The General was quite taken back by this, but she respected it somehow. It wasn’t without fault, but it was better than the answer she thought was coming. * ‘...That won’t work, not at all, but it’s better than nothing.’ She replied. * ‘...It better be. Now, I’m leaving.’ The Commander killed the conversation and re-attached her sidearm to her thigh ‘I’m only going to assume you guys fixed up my drone after you made me slam it into the surface of this moon.’ * ‘The engineers have only just started. They need more time. I’d recommend going down to our quarters to res-...’ the General began. * ‘-No, that’s fine. I’ll be in the security room outside. I’m not taking any chances on you.’ She made clear ‘You can stay here and ponder over your future, all of our futures.’ And with that, the Commander turned and tore open the door, before following the stairs back down into the security room where she arrived. The General took a seat beside the table, and glanced up a few times as she thought over the discussion. Things weren’t going as planned, thanks to her own fresh naivety. She, unlike the Commander, had embraced her humanity and her emotions and feelings. She had her own very personal initiative, but she knew from then on that the Commander would not be as tempted by revenge as she had been. The system was wrong. --- As the Commander jumped the final step and landed in the security room, Daniels approached with his arms neatly behind his suit. The security officers continued working at their consoles, monitoring different areas of the facility via cameras as well as watching over other areas of the moon through satellite links. * ‘Commander.’ He greeted her with a smile ‘I trust that your ‘debate’ with the General was promising?’ * ‘As of this moment, I am relieving her of command. She’s not fit for duty, not anymore. For the moment, I’ll be taking control of this base and all of its operations. Is that understood?’ the commander wielded her authority like a hammer to the head. * ‘Y-Yes ma’am.’ Daniels saluted ‘I’ll inform the colony immediately but, well, a lot of the workers have some respect for the General. She never told us her plans though. I was wondering, Commander, if you could shed some light on it.’ * ‘It’s classified, Daniels. Just make the call. Everything will be back to normal in no time.’ in Part V